Written Answers Monday 25 October 2010

Scottish Executive

Ambulance Service

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many calls to the Scottish Ambulance Service on 5 October 2010 were dealt with through contingency arrangements and how many of these were category (a) A and (b) B calls.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service experienced technical problems on 5 October 2010 that resulted in a delay to calls being (a) answered or (b) logged.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service experienced technical problems on 5 October 2010 that resulted in calls being unanswered.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service experienced technical problems on 5 October 2010 that resulted in increased ambulance response times.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service experienced technical problems on 5 October 2010 that resulted in delays to category A call information being logged and, if so, what the (a) average and (b) longest delay was.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service experienced technical problems on 5 October 2010 that resulted in delays to category B call information being logged and, if so, what the (a) average and (b) longest delay was.

Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service experienced technical problems on 5 October 2010 and, if so, whether there were adverse clinical outcomes attributed to these problems.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Ambulance Service has provided the following detail in relation to this incident.

  On 5 October 2010 the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) emergency medical dispatch centres (EMDCs) in Norseman (South Queensferry) and Inverness experienced difficulty in answering 999 calls via their digital phone lines. Cardonald EMDC in Glasgow was unaffected by the incident.

  During routine maintenance, scheduled for a period of reduced service demand and risk, a BT engineer disconnected main and secondary circuits on the ambulance service digital phone network, a human error that resulted in the Inverness and Norseman EMDCs experiencing disruption. Normal call handling operations were impacted as follows:

  Inverness EMDC between 00:51 and 04:00

  Norseman EMDC between 00:53 and 03:19

  During this period, SAS received 141 calls through the 999 service. Of those, 120 were actual incidents with the remainder being multiple calls. Of those 120 incidents, 60 of them were handled by the Glasgow EMDC through their usual digital phone lines. The other 60 incidents (of which 13 were category A, 36 were category B and 11 were non-emergency) were handled in Edinburgh and Inverness through contingency arrangements, in this case diverting calls to analogue phone lines in those EMDCs. These analogue lines were installed as part of the service response to the incident on 21 July 2010.

  All 999 calls to SAS were answered, and there were no delays in calls (of any category) being answered or logged on to the system for an ambulance to be dispatched. SAS has informed me that there was no impact on the deployment of ambulances and no adverse outcomes attributable to the fault experienced on 5 October 2010. SAS have undertaken a clinical review of the calls that were answered under the contingency arrangements to ensure robust clinical governance and assurance.

Asthma

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the registered users’ version of the 2010 update of the British Guideline on the Management of Asthma has been delayed and, if so, for what reason and what action it will take to ensure that it is completed in time for the launch of the guideline in January 2011.

Nicola Sturgeon: Since 2003, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network and the British Thoracic Society jointly update annually, sections of the British Guideline on the Management of Asthma.

  For the first time, a patient version of the British Guideline on the Management of Asthma will be published in 2011. The intention is to launch this in conjunction with or slightly after publication of the clinical guideline, which is scheduled for the end of January 2011. There are no indications that it will be delayed.

Benefits

Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with representatives of organisations involved in providing legal, welfare rights and money advice services regarding how they can be supported in meeting the potential increased demand resulting from proposed reductions in benefits.

Alex Neil: The Scottish Government meets frequently with representatives of such organisations.

Benefits

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many families in Scotland will face a reduction in child benefit as a result of changes proposed by the UK Government and how much they will lose on average.

Nicola Sturgeon: Under the UK Government’s plans, from January 2013, households with a higher rate taxpayer will not receive child benefit. It is estimated that approximately 110,000 families in Scotland will have their child benefit withdrawn. On average, these families will be £1,600 a year worse off.

Benefits

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many families in Scotland will face a reduction in child tax credit as a result of changes proposed by the UK Government and how much they will lose on average.

Nicola Sturgeon: As a result of the reforms to the tax and benefit system being introduced by the UK Government in 2011-12 and 2012-13, it is estimated that approximately 385,000 families in Scotland will lose or face a reduction in their child tax credit and working tax credit entitlement by 2012-13. It is estimated that these families will be £400 a year worse-off on average as a result of the reduction in their tax credits.

Children

Karen Whitefield (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on how many families in Scotland will be affected by the abolition of child trust funds and how much they will lose on average.

Nicola Sturgeon: From 1 August 2010, child trust fund (CTF) payments to newly born children were more than halved and will cease entirely from 1 January 2011. Consequently, all families in Scotland with children born after December 2010 will receive no payment.

  From 1 August 2010, the UK Government also stopped the "additional age seven CTF payment" worth between £250 and £500 which was previously paid into the CTF accounts of children turning seven. There are approximately 397,000 children under the age of seven in Scotland.

Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what its plans are for commencement of each section of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.

Kenny MacAskill: The Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 (the Act) was passed by the Parliament on 30 June 2010 and received Royal Assent on 6 August 2010.

  Some provisions within the Act are already commenced or about to be commenced. These are as noted in the following table.

  Provisions Already Commenced or About to be Commenced – Criminal Justice and Licensing Act 2010

  

Provision within the Act
Date into Force


Section 178(3)(e)
16 August 2010


Sections 38 and 97
6 October 2010


Section 108(1) and (4)
12 October 2010


Sections 43, 44 and 63
Will be brought into force on 1 December 2010



  As the largest piece of criminal justice legislation in many years, work is underway in considering when best to commence the remaining provisions within the Act to ensure effective implementation. Decisions as to when to commence other provisions within the Act will be taken shortly.

Equalities

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the duty under equalities legislation for public bodies to assess the likely impact of their decisions and policies from gender, race and disability equality perspectives is binding on police forces.

Alex Neil: Public authorities subject to the public sector equality duties to promote race, gender and disability equality include Chief Constables of a police force maintained under section 1 of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 and police authorities established under section 2 of the Police (Scotland) Act 1967. It is for public authorities themselves to determine how they respond to the duties.

Forestry

Peter Peacock (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many forest crofts have been created since 2007.

Roseanna Cunningham: To date no woodland crofts have been established on the national forest estate. A woodland crofts project officer is working with a number of communities across the crofting counties supporting them to develop their ideas and proposals.

Health

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when the short-life working group on alternative and augmentative communication’s final report will be published with recommendations to improve interagency working and cooperation.

Shona Robison: Following two recruitment exercises an alternative and augmentative communication project worker has been seconded to the Scottish Government for a period of six months to take forward this piece of work.

  A final report will be published at the end of the secondment.

Health

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants are in receipt of merit awards, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested can be found at Appendix H of the latest Annual Report of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards (SACDA) at www.shsc.scot.nhs.uk/shsc/default.asp?p=71 .

  SACDA’s figures relating to overall consultant numbers are based on data extracted from the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System database and not those subsequently published by Information and Statistics Division.

  For ease of reference, the information as at 30 September 2009 is as follows:

  

NHS Board Area
Total


Ayrshire and Arran
11


Borders
3


Dumfries and Galloway
6


Fife
10


Forth Valley
12


Grampian
70


Greater Glasgow and Clyde
201


Highland
15


Lanarkshire
12


Lothian
143


National¹
24


Orkney
0


Shetland
0


Tayside
71


Western Isles
0


Total
578



  Note: ¹ includes consultants working in National Organisations e.g. NHS National Services Scotland (operating name for the Common Services Agency), NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, The State Hospitals Board for Scotland and Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

Health

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants are in receipt of merit awards in categories (a) A+, (b) A and (c) B, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested can be found at Appendix H of the latest report of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Distinction Awards at: www.shsc.scot.nhs.uk/shsc/default.asp?p=71 .

  For ease of reference, the information at 30 September 2009 is as follows:

  

NHS Board Area
A+
A
B
Total


 
No.
No.
No.
No.


Ayrshire and Arran 
0
3
8
11


Borders 
0
1
2
3


Dumfries and Galloway 
0
1
5
6


Fife 
1
1
8
10


Forth Valley 
0
3
9
12


Grampian 
7
22
41
70


Greater Glasgow and Clyde 
16
61
124
201


Highland 
0
6
9
15


Lanarkshire 
0
3
9
12


Lothian 
21
38
84
143


National1 
2
8
14
24


Orkney 
0
0
0
0


Shetland 
0
0
0
0


Tayside 
6
19
46
71


Western Isles 
0
0
0
0


Total
53
166
359
578



  Note: 1 Includes consultants working in National Organisations e.g. NHS National Services Scotland (operating name for the Common Services Agency), NHS Education, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, NHS Health Scotland, The State Hospitals Board for Scotland and Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

Health

David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost of merit awards to consultants was in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009 and has been in 2010, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: The cost of consultants’ distinction awards over the last four financial years, broken down by NHS board is detailed in the following table.

  

 
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10


Board
£000
£000
£000
£000


Ayrshire and Arran
302.5
319.1
338.0
496.4


Borders
95.0
95.7
81.5
135.4


Dumfries and Galloway
175.5
200.2
204.6
243.8


Fife
337.0
382.8
405.1
434.8


Forth Valley
361.9
410.6
409.2
514.6


Golden Jubilee National Hospital
0.0
0.0
86.0
126.4


Grampian
3,079.8
2,891.2
3,181.3
3,441.8


Greater Glasgow and Clyde
8,575.1
8,803.6
9,372.7
9,619.8


Health Scotland
34.6
34.8
62.3
99.3


Highland
561.6
591.8
665.8
722.9


Lanarkshire
492.7
472.9
544.6
498.6


Lothian
6,094.6
6,314.1
7,110.6
7,302.0


National Education Scotland
324.4
350.7
451.7
535.2


National Services Scotland
153.4
261.1
302.4
292.1


Orkney
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0


Shetland
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0


Tayside
2,767.5
2,965.7
3,138.4
3,354.0


The State Hospitals Board for Scotland
11.6
34.8
71.2
72.2


Western Isles
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0


Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland*
11.6
34.8
35.6
72.2


Scottish Prison Service*
23.0
0.0
0.0
0.0


Totals**
23,401.8
24,163.9
26,461
27,961.5



  Notes:

  *Although not NHS boards, the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland and the Scottish Prison Service employ or have employed consultants who are in receipt of distinction awards.

  **May vary slightly to those published previously due to the rounding of individual totals in this table.

Health

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive on what evidence the continuation of the chronic kidney disease element of the Quality and Outcomes Framework is based and when this element will be reviewed.

Nicola Sturgeon: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) manages the process to develop the clinical and health improvement indicators for the Quality and Outcomes Framework, including prioritising areas for new indicator development and recommending whether existing indicators should continue. This is an evidence based process handled by NICE’s independent advisory committee, and Quality Improvement Scotland is involved in representing Scottish health issues. NICE guidance on chronic kidney disease was published in September 2008 and further details of the process are available on the NICE website at www.nice.org.uk/cg73 . It is for the NICE Advisory Committee to decide on when to review the indicators.

Housing

Mary Mulligan (Linlithgow) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-35789 by Alex Neil on 30 August 2010, what the outcomes were of the seminars on the hub model for distribution of funding under the Housing Options programme.

Alex Neil: Five hubs have now been established, roughly on a regional basis. We currently await the submission of an action plan from each hub, which will provide a basis for consideration as to how the funding should be distributed. We expect to have all five action plans submitted by the end of October 2010.

NHS Hospitals

Jim Hume (South of Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital ward closures as a result of infections there were in (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08, (c) 2008-09 and (d) 2009-10 in hospitals administered by NHS (i) Borders, (ii) Dumfries and Galloway, (iii) Lothian, (iv) Ayrshire and Arran and (v) Lanarkshire.

Nicola Sturgeon: The following table shows the number of whole or partial ward closures as a result of infection, for the period 2006 to 2010, in hospitals administered by NHS Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Lothian, Ayrshire and Arran and Lanarkshire.

  The figures in brackets are the number of whole or partial ward closures due to norovirus. NHS Lanarkshire has confirmed that during the period 2006 to 2009 the organism responsible for the remaining ward closures was not confirmed, but that norovirus was suspected in almost all of the cases.

  

NHS Board
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10


Ayrshire and Arran
23 (17)
70 (64)
29 (28)
68 (66)


Borders
24 (24)
14 (14)
10 (10)
16 (15)


Dumfries and Galloway
8 (8)
9 (9)
8 (8)
7 (7)


Lanarkshire
21 (9)
32 (24)
36 (12)
42 (42)


Lothian
36 (36)
103 (102)
195 (195)
178 (177)

NHS Staff

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS managers are not included in the Agenda for Change payscales and for what reason.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-31307 on 1 March 2010 which specifies the number of managers not included on Agenda for Change. The reasons for not including certain posts under Agenda for Change contractual arrangements is set out in the circular HDL(2006)59 ( http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/HDL2006_59.pdf ). There was an independently chaired review of the executive and senior management pay arrangements which is published on the SHOW website and the link is http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/DC20100315Pay.pdf .

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

NHS Staff

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what bonus payments were made to NHS managers in (a) 2008-09 and (b) 2009-10 and have been made in 2010-11, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to questions S3W-31307 and S3W-32005 on 1 March 2010. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

National Health Service

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital specialist appointments have been missed in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26533 on 14 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx .

  Information on the number of patients who did not attend (DNA) a first outpatient appointment at a consultant-led clinic in 2009-10 is as follows.

  Prior to the introduction of the new ways of defining and measuring waiting times, DNA information was only available for first outpatient appointments from Scottish morbidity outpatient records. DNA information is now being published from the new ways dataset for both first outpatient appointments and for inpatient and day case treatment. The first published data was for the quarter ending 30 September 2009.

  Latest published information from new ways shows that for the quarter ending  June 2010, there were 33,794 missed first outpatient appointments at a  consultant-led clinic, a DNA rate of 9.0%. For the same period, there were 2,982 missed appointments for inpatient and day case treatment, a DNA rate of 2.6%.

  

NHS Board of Treatment
Number of New Outpatient Appointments
Number of DNAs
DNA Rate (%)


Ayrshire and Arran
108,542
11,998
11.1


Borders
32,311
2,112
6.5


Dumfries and Galloway
39,902
1,971
4.9


Fife
109,355
10,190
9.3


Forth Valley
71,088
6,042
8.5


Grampian
124,974
9,843
7.9


Greater Glasgow and Clyde
460,249
62,481
13.6


Highland
69,218
5,228
7.6


Lanarkshire
145,397
17,284
11.9


Lothian
238,245
25,510
10.7


Orkney
3,519
141
4.0


Shetland
6,085
367
6.0


Tayside
155,452
13,982
9.0


Western Isles
7,615
578
7.6


Scotland*
1,576,359
167,968
10.7



  Note: * Data for the Golden Jubilee National Hospital are not shown separately but are included in the Scotland figures.

  Source: ISD Scotland, SMR00 (Outpatient attendance).

Poverty

Bill Butler (Glasgow Anniesland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what payments have been made from its poverty framework fund as outlined in Achieving Our Potential: A Framework to tackle poverty and income inequality in Scotland , since 1 April 2010, broken down by (a) amount and (b) organisation award made to.

Alex Neil: Since the information provided in the answer to question S3W-29505 on 15 December 2009 on allocations from the Achieving Our Potential budget, one further grant has been awarded. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will receive £860,000 in 2010-11 to deliver their Healthier Wealthier Children project in collaboration with their local authority and third sector partners. The project aligns mainstream support for vulnerable families with financial inclusion advice with the aim of addressing child poverty.

  From 1 April 2010, all payments over £25,000 made from Scottish Government budgets are published at:http://www.scotland.gov.uk/About/Directorates/expenditure.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

Schools

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many school playing fields there have been in each year since 2007, broken down by local authority.

Keith Brown: The information requested is not held centrally.

Sex Offenders

Nigel Don (North East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will act and what it will need to do to address the issues raised in the judgement of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom that found that requiring sex offenders to register indefinitely on the sex offender register without the opportunity for review was incompatible with Article 8 the European Convention on Human Rights.

Kenny MacAskill: The UK Supreme Court has ruled that requiring sex offenders to register indefinitely on the sex offender register without the opportunity for review is incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). England and Wales will have to introduce changes to give effect to this ruling. A case raising identical issues has been brought before the Court of Session in Scotland, and we have been asked by the court to demonstrate what steps we, in Scotland, are taking to make the law here ECHR compliant.

  In making the law ECHR compliant, public safety is an absolute priority. In recent years we have toughened up the safeguards in place, such as improving risk assessment of sex offenders and the roll out of the successful community disclosure scheme, and our focus must be on enabling the police to manage offenders who pose a continuing risk of sexual harm.

  On 25 October 2010 we will make, lay and bring into force an urgent order under section 12 of the Convention Rights (Compliance) (Scotland) Act 2001 to address the Supreme Court ruling.

  Judges will still have the power to place someone on the sex offenders register for life and indefinite registration for serious sex offenders will continue. The order will introduce a mechanism to provide those placed on the register for life with the right to a review after a set period of time. Offenders who are convicted of a sexual offence as adults (over the age of 18) will be eligible for review after 15 years on the register. For offenders who were convicted when they were under 18, this period will be eight years.

  No offender will be automatically removed from the register when the review date is reached. The police will carry out a robust assessment of every offender who reaches the review date, taking into account a range of information, including any risk assessments carried out through the multi-agency public protection arrangements. A senior police officer will decide whether the risk posed to the public by the offender requires them to remain on the register.

  The offender will be able to appeal the police decision to a Sheriff and the decision of the Sheriff to grant or refuse an appeal can be appealed to the Sheriff Principal, whose decision is final.

  This review mechanism, which is supported by the police, will ensure that public protection is the foremost consideration in meeting the requirements placed on us by the ECHR.